🐾 DOG HOUSE GAME OF THE WEEK

Remembering the Day Everything Stopped — Then Playing Some Football

Fort Madison Heads to Central Lee for a 9/11 Lee County Showdown

By Chuck Banks | Dog House Tour / Dog Pound Radio

There are football games.

There are rivalry games.

And then there are nights when football, history, memories, relationships and life all seem to meet at the same place.

Friday, September 11, 2026, will be one of those nights for me.

Fort Madison will make the short trip into the country to face Central Lee in what I’m calling the Battle of the Corn — Lee County Style.

The Bloodhounds enter at 1-1. The Hawks are 2-0.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Central Lee High School, and it will be Military/First Responders Appreciation Night.

But before we talk about Owen Huffman, Moses Thacher, Brett Cook, the offensive lines, defenses and what should be one heck of a football game, I can’t write about September 11 without first writing about September 11, 2001.

Because I remember exactly where I was when everything stopped.

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🇺🇸 SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was down in Warrensburg, Missouri, getting ready to start another day.

At the time, I was the Production Manager for Venture Vinyl Windows in Leon, Iowa. I was on the road training a window salesman.

Back home in Leon were my wife, Stephanie, and our newborn son, Peyton. They were starting their morning in our small apartment while I was several hours away going about what I thought would be an ordinary workday.

The salesman and I got into the truck and headed toward the next lumber yard on our list in Knob Noster, Missouri.

We pulled in, got out and headed toward the front door.

Something immediately seemed different.

Inside were grown men gathered around a television — one of those little 20-inch TVs mounted on a wall.

There must have been 30 or more people in that store.

Nobody was talking about windows.

Nobody cared about our sales pitch.

Everybody was staring at that television.

We walked toward the counter and started doing what we had come there to do when the man behind the desk looked at us.

“You haven’t heard?”

Then came the words I’ll never forget:

“We’re going to war!”

I looked toward the television.

One of the World Trade Center towers was burning.

My brain was still trying to process what I was looking at when somebody else in the lumber yard suddenly yelled:

“Holy shit! Another plane hit another tower!”

Sorry for the language.

But history is history.

And that is exactly how I remember it.

Everything changed.

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📱 ONE PHONE CALL

I immediately went outside and called Stephanie.

This wasn’t the world we live in today.

There wasn’t a smartphone in my pocket.

No social media.

No livestream.

No camera.

No constant stream of notifications.

I had a Motorola cell phone.

A phone.

That was about it.

I called home.

Stephanie was in tears.

We were trying to understand something neither of us could possibly understand at that moment.

Eventually, we decided the best thing for me to do was start working my way back toward home.

We headed north and turned on the radio.

That’s where our information came from.

The radio.

As we left the Knob Noster area, I remember looking toward the sky and seeing aircraft activity in the direction of Kansas City. I also remember seeing two B-2 bombers take off and roar into the sky.

Whether you’re 29 years old or 90, there are certain images that burn themselves into your memory.

That is one of mine.

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A WORLD THAT HAD GONE HAYWIRE

We continued trying to make our scheduled stops.

Nobody cared about windows.

And who could blame them?

The entire country was trying to figure out what had just happened.

The sales pitch wasn’t working.

Business didn’t matter.

Everything that had seemed important when we woke up that morning suddenly seemed incredibly small.

Then we developed another problem.

We were running out of gas.

We pulled into Moberly, Missouri.

No gas.

Stations were running out as people panicked.

We continued toward Macon.

Gas prices had exploded. I remember seeing prices of more than $4 per gallon, with price gouging becoming another part of the chaos unfolding around us.

We kept going.

Eventually, we reached Green City, Missouri, and found a station that still had fuel.

There were probably ten cars ahead of us.

People weren’t simply filling their vehicles.

They were buying gas cans.

Filling those too.

Everyone was scared.

Nobody knew what tomorrow looked like.

We finally reached the pump, filled the truck and continued toward home.

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THAT NIGHT

I spent that evening like millions of Americans did.

Watching television.

Watching the news.

Watching the towers fall over and over again.

Watching firefighters.

Police officers.

Paramedics.

Ordinary Americans.

Watching families searching for loved ones.

Watching our country attempt to comprehend an attack that had taken thousands of lives in a matter of hours.

September 11, 2001 became one of those dividing lines in American history.

There was life before 9/11.

And there was life after it.

We can never forget.

We can never forget the people who went to work that morning and never came home.

We can never forget the passengers and crews aboard those airplanes.

We can never forget the first responders who ran toward danger while everyone else was trying to escape it.

And we can never forget the families whose lives changed forever.

Twenty-five years later, I’ll spend another September 11 doing something completely different.

I’ll be calling a high school football game.

But this isn’t just another football game either.

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🏈 THE BATTLE OF THE CORN

Fort Madison (1-1) at Central Lee (2-0)
Friday, September 11, 2026
7:00 PM
Central Lee High School Football Field

Call it the Battle of Lee County.

Call it the Battle of the Corn.

I’ll call it one of the most personally meaningful games I’ve had the opportunity to broadcast.

Because I know these two places.

I know these coaches.

I know many of these families.

And I know these kids.

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🦅 CENTRAL LEE — A PLACE THAT WILL ALWAYS MEAN SOMETHING

I spent 11 good years at Central Lee.

I taught History, Government and World History.

I served four years as Activities Director.

I coached football for more than a decade, first as an assistant and eventually as the varsity head coach.

During my tenure, we reached the playoffs three times — twice while I was an assistant and once while I was the head coach.

But those are just numbers.

The memories are bigger.

I remember when members of this current Central Lee senior class were little kids attending our youth football camp.

Now they’re seniors.

Think about that.

Those little guys grew up.

And Friday night, I’ll be sitting on the other side of the microphone watching them play varsity football.

Life moves pretty fast.

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🐶 AND THEN THERE’S FORT MADISON

Fort Madison has been part of my football life for the past four years as well.

I spent three of those years as an assistant coach.

Now my role has changed.

Instead of calling defenses or coaching kids from the sideline, I’ll be calling the game through Dog Pound Radio.

And there are familiar faces everywhere.

Coach Tyler Bryant and Coach Evan Swanson were the first two coaches willing to join me when I started building what became Dog Pound Radio and The Coach Show.

Coach Derek Doherty joined shortly afterward.

Those things matter to me.

This entire Dog House journey has always been about relationships.

Friday night will feel a little bit like a reunion.

Only there happens to be a football game attached to it.

And it could be a really good one.

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🔴 FORT MADISON: THACHER, HUFFMAN AND A BALANCED ATTACK

Fort Madison comes into the game 1-1 after opening the season with a 50-18 victory over Burlington before falling 42-21 to West Burlington/Notre Dame.

The Bloodhounds have shown they can move the football.

Junior quarterback Owen Huffman has completed 25 of 37 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns against one interception through two games.

Huffman has also contributed 83 rushing yards on 13 attempts, averaging 6.4 yards per carry.

That ability to make something happen with his legs will matter against Central Lee.

But everyone following the Dog House knows where the Bloodhounds’ running game starts.

Moses Thacher.

The junior has carried the football 35 times for 328 yards and five touchdowns, averaging an impressive 9.4 yards per carry.

That’s production.

And that’s a problem Central Lee has to solve.

Fort Madison has already rushed for 433 yards and six touchdowns as a team.

The passing game gives Doherty another dimension.

Aurelio Jaciunde has emerged as a major weapon with nine receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown.

Max Jones has eight catches for 58 yards.

Jordan Thompson, Connor Horn, Henry Ireland and others give Huffman additional options.

The Bloodhounds don’t need to live on one player.

That’s what makes them dangerous.

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🦅 CENTRAL LEE: SOMEBODY BETTER FIND NO. 2

Then there is Central Lee senior Brett Cook.

And Cook has been, well…

cooking.

Through two games, Cook has completed 12 of 24 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown.

But his biggest damage has come on the ground.

Cook has carried 31 times for 182 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 5.9 yards per attempt with a long run of 62 yards.

And don’t overlook what he does defensively.

The senior has piled up 20 tackles, including 17 solo stops and three tackles for loss.

That’s a football player.

Not an offensive player.

Not a defensive player.

A football player.

Central Lee also has Jonathan Seyb, who has rushed 19 times for 99 yards and a touchdown, while sophomore Jaxon Mueller has added another rushing score.

The Hawks have accumulated 311 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns as a team.

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✈️ DON’T LET THE HAWKS’ GROUND GAME FOOL YOU

If Fort Madison starts loading the box to slow Cook and the rushing attack, Central Lee can put the football in the air.

And there’s a big-play threat waiting.

Evan Fogarty has four catches for 134 yards and a touchdown, an eye-popping 33.5 yards per reception, including a 60-yard gain.

Carson Morrison has five catches for 76 yards.

Central Lee has totaled 247 receiving yards, averaging 19 yards per catch.

So this isn’t simply a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense.

If you creep those safeties forward…

Look out.

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🛡️ THE HAWKS DEFENSE IS MAKING NOISE

This is one of the areas that really jumps off the stat sheet.

Central Lee has recorded 110 total tackles, 95 solo tackles and 13 tackles for loss.

Cook leads the way with 20 tackles.

Adam Bagan has 11.5.

Luke Kruse has nine.

Jonathan Seyb has eight.

Kellen Weber has seven.

The Hawks have also been creating turnovers.

Central Lee has forced three fumbles, recovering all three, and the defense has generated interceptions as well.

Those extra possessions can completely change a high school football game.

Fort Madison cannot give Central Lee short fields.

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🧱 WHERE THIS GAME MAY REALLY BE DECIDED

Forget the quarterbacks for a minute.

Forget Cook.

Forget Thacher.

Forget the receivers.

Watch the guys nobody watches.

The offensive and defensive lines.

Fort Madison has veteran bodies up front, including players such as Marshall Heitmann, Liam Prier, Nolan Lamb, Ren Watson, Clifford Stewart and Cal Hennings.

Several of those guys are also making plays defensively.

Heitmann has 11.5 tackles and two tackles for loss. Prier has 9.5 tackles. Watson has nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack.

Central Lee has its own group ready for the challenge, including Wyatt Day, Jack Benner, Lukas Clark, Brody Ruffcorn, Jaxon Mueller and Jonathan Seyb.

Central Lee’s stat sheet credits the Hawks’ linemen with 27 pancakes through two games, including 10 for Benner and six apiece for Day and Ruffcorn.

That’s where I’m looking Friday night.

Who owns the line of scrimmage?

Because there’s a pretty good chance the answer to that question will also answer who wins the football game.

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🔑 DOG HOUSE KEYS TO THE GAME

For Fort Madison, the Bloodhounds need to establish Thacher without becoming predictable, allow Huffman to use play-action, and protect the football. Defensively, they have to contain Cook and cannot allow Fogarty or another Central Lee receiver to get behind the secondary.

For Central Lee, the Hawks need to make Fort Madison earn everything. Cook doesn’t have to carry the entire offense if the Hawks can establish Seyb and the other backs. Defensively, Central Lee’s tackling and ability to create turnovers could become the difference.

And then there are special teams.

Fort Madison’s Aurelio Jaciunde already has a kickoff-return touchdown among his 92 return yards, so Central Lee’s coverage teams cannot take a snap off.

In a game that could be decided by one possession, hidden yardage matters.

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🇺🇸 BUT BEFORE THE FOOTBALL…

There will be helmets.

There will be pads popping.

There will be coaches yelling.

There will be parents in the stands.

There will be kids running around.

There will be a scoreboard.

And eventually somebody will win and somebody will lose.

But on September 11, I hope we remember that there are things bigger than football.

Twenty-five years ago, I was a young husband and father standing in a lumber yard in Knob Noster, Missouri, watching history unfold on a 20-inch television.

My newborn son was home.

My wife was crying on the other end of a Motorola cell phone.

I was trying to find enough gasoline to get home.

And none of us knew exactly what tomorrow would bring.

Twenty-five years later, I’ll stand in a press box in Lee County, Iowa, looking down at young men playing a game I have loved for most of my life.

Some of those young men were little kids at my football camps.

Some come from a program where I spent 11 years of my life.

Others come from a program where I spent the next chapter of my coaching career.

The coaches are friends.

The communities are familiar.

The game is personal.

And perhaps that’s one of the lessons September 11 ultimately leaves with me.

Life keeps moving.

Children grow up.

Careers change.

Coaches become broadcasters.

Players become adults.

Years turn into decades.

But memories remain.

So Friday night, we’ll remember.

We’ll honor our military.

We’ll honor our first responders.

We’ll remember the innocent Americans who never made it home on September 11, 2001.

And then, under those Friday night lights in the country…

we’ll play some football.

🐾 DOG HOUSE GAME OF THE WEEK

FORT MADISON BLOODHOUNDS (1-1)
vs.
CENTRAL LEE HAWKS (2-0)

📅 Friday, September 11, 2026
⏰ 7:00 PM
📍 Central Lee High School
🇺🇸 Military / First Responders Appreciation Night
🎙️ Dog Pound Radio / Dog House Tour

The Battle of the Corn.

Lee County style.

Two programs. A whole lot of familiar faces. One very special date.

NEVER FORGET — 9/11/2001 🇺🇸

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